MyBB News letters...

Rate your broadband service (iPad 2 up for grabs)
Tell us what you think of your broadband connection and stand a chance to win an Apple iPad 2

DStv price increases
MultiChoice has announced price increases for DStv that will kick in from 1 April 2012

Vodacom Business to boost broadband access
Vodacom Business will boost their broadband access product range with new wireless and fibre connectivity options.

R260 PC: Register for a Raspberry Pi from SA
The R260 model of the credit-card sized computer launched and sold out in a day – here's how to "register your interest" with a South African distributor online

Solid State Drive buyers guide
Some things to consider once you've decided to invest in a Solid State Drive

Voice rates: who cut prices and who didn't?
The latest round of interconnect rate cuts kicked in today, and here is which companies cut prices and which ones didn't

Graduate Developer
Our client a well established engineering company based in Pretoria is currently recruiting for a Junior Software Developer to join their team on a full time basis.

May I suggest adding the article in full which you use as a subject?

It's annoying the hell out of me personally, no idea how the other people feel.

I know the aim is to get people to come to the site and all is good and well, I have no problem with adding other headings below the article, but for all that is good, please include the Article which is mentioned in the subject.

I have signed up with Bitco and it's by far the best internet I have ever had. Get a quote

SA's most iconic cellphones
Cellular bigwigs weigh in on which handsets are the most iconic in SA's cellular history

Top 10 most pirated PC games
Here are some of the most popular games which online pirates are plundering on the Internet

MTN cuts off Cell C number range
You may hear the message "The number you have called is not available on the MTN network" when trying to call some Cell C numbers

Predict the gold price and win a Samsung Galaxy Tab
Predict what the gold price will be by the end of the week and stand a chance to win a 7'' Samsung Galaxy Tab

Graduate Developer
Our client a well established engineering company based in Pretoria is currently recruiting for a Junior Software Developer to join their team on a full time basis.

Where something like this would have been better imho:

Free Wi-Fi for Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch is planning to provide free Wi-Fi Internet access to everyone in the town. This is according to Stellenbosch mayor Conrad Sidego.

Sidego said that they are planning to make Stellenbosch a Wi-Fi town– an initiative by Stellenbosch, Mxit and the University of Stellenbosch.

The service will be offered free of charge to anyone, and no registration for the service will be needed.

Large downloads will be prohibited, but all other services (like web surfing, messaging and VoIP services) will be supported.

Stellenbosch councillor and head of the municipality’s finance portfolio, Pieter Venter, explained that the trial network will go live on Friday (24 February).

This trial Wi-Fi network will cover the town centre, and will run for two to three weeks before extending the network to the greater Stellenbosch area.

The next phase involves rolling out the network to all populated areas within the Stellenbosch municipality. Venter explained that the network will reach as far as Franschhoek and Pniel.

The fast six-month rollout period may surprise people, but Venter explained that the core Wi-Fi network is already in place. This Wi-Fi network is already used to connect the municipal offices and carry municipal calls (hence cutting costs and limiting their reliance on Telkom).

All that needs to be done now it to put repeaters closer to residents to “fill in” the network and boost coverage. These repeaters will be put on lamp poles and on suitable high sites.

Venter said that they wanted to provide a free Wi-Fi network to Stellenbosch residents for years, but that Internet access costs (hence national and international bandwidth) was a problem. Mxit stepped in to solve this problem for Stellenbosch by making available their unused capacity.

Mxit CEO Alan Knott-Craig Jr. said that they are assisting with the Wi-Fi project at the request of the mayor.

“We are psyched to help promote Stellenbosch as the true tech capital of Africa. Although free Wi-Fi can never compete in performance with paid-for services, it does provide a magnet for creativity and engineers,” said Knott-Craig.

“Our primary value-add is the unused bandwidth coming into our data centre (770 million messages a day requires a fair amount of capacity),” said Knott-Craig.

Venter said that the Mxit bandwidth will serve their initial needs, and hopes that organizations such as the University of Stellenbosch and SEACOM will also assist when the need arises for additional bandwidth.

Venter highlighted that they do not want to compete against paid-for broadband services like ADSL or 3G, and is therefore limiting the service to 1Mbps and a 500MB daily usage cap.

Venter is confident that this initiative will not only boost Internet access and the economy of Stellenbosch, but also attract entrepreneurs and technical people to the region.

E-tolling to start on April 30
National Treasury said that tolling on Gauteng roads will begin on 30 April 2012

Ok, I see your point. I agree that would be much better. Even having half a full article and a "continue to read online" would be better.

Yes, even a small summary.

I hate it when I'm unable to get onto MyBB but I'm left with...

"Multichoice to increase their rates as from 1 April 2012"

It came through yesterday and I only got time to come and read the whole article online now since I was pretty busy with clients and so on. Would have been great if yesterday I would have known that the increase would be to R 590 without having to come online to read it today.

If the subject doesn't attract or affect me I just skip the news letter. The one of yesterday though did spark an interrest just to be hugely dissapointed by "Multichoice to increase their rates 01 April 2012".

Anyway, it's just a suggestion. I would put more care into reading the news letter if this was the case. I'm currently contemplating moving it to the junk folder

I have signed up with Bitco and it's by far the best internet I have ever had. Get a quote

Perhaps they could stop using one story as an attention grabbing subject line. I'd rather not have to wade through an article I potentially have no interest in so I can see what other news there is.

Originally Posted by Pitbull

It came through yesterday and I only got time to come and read the whole article online now since I was pretty busy with clients and so on.

You'd have time to read an email but not to click a link to read it? Are you by any chance a blackberry user?

"Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien." FM Arouet"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke"Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience" UnknownRon White was right

Perhaps they could stop using one story as an attention grabbing subject line. I'd rather not have to wade through an article I potentially have no interest in so I can see what other news there is.

That will do.

The problem I'm finding with the news letter is that it's not aimed as a monthly letter more like a snap shot for the 2 or 3 days prior to the news letter. It doesn't cover things in store for the next month or a summary of the previous month. In the current format it looks like a daily news letter.

You'd have time to read an email but not to click a link to read it? Are you by any chance a blackberry user?

I downloaded all the e-mails while I was at the office. I only checked them around 16:00 when I was no where near an internet source of any kind. Not even cell reception.

I have signed up with Bitco and it's by far the best internet I have ever had. Get a quote

I downloaded all the e-mails while I was at the office. I only checked them around 16:00 when I was no where near an internet source of any kind. Not even cell reception.

Perhaps we could arrange for rpm to come and read the articles to you on your way home?

And yes, reading them to you while you're on the can would be asking too much.

"Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien." FM Arouet"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke"Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience" UnknownRon White was right

If I understand you correctly you would like to see a full article rather than just a headline blurb?

Regarding the email title: We typically select the title of the biggest story and use that as the title. It is effective to encourage people to open the newsletter – which is our aim. It is standard practice in newsletters.

Regarding the full article: Just too much content for a newsletter. We actually considered just headlines and links, but the descriptions seem to strike a good balance. Spam filters are also tricky – spam catchers will be more likely to bin a newsletter which you described.

There are quite a few things we battle with when it comes to newsletters, and our current system seems to work well. I can understand that it may not suit your needs, and I hope one of the other channels (RSS, Twitter etc) may be a suitable replacement.

I really wish we could send individualized newsletter – but just too much work